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Explore the life and works of iconic Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Known for her self-portraits and works inspired by nature and Mexican culture, Kahlo's art continues to inspire generations.

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Lin Manuel-Miranda on Amplifying Latin Stories | Storytellers Spotlight

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Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is remembered for her self-portraits, pain and passion, and bold, vibrant colors. She is celebrated in Mexico for her attention to Mexican and indigenous culture and by feminists for her depiction of the female experience and form.

Kahlo, who suffered from polio as a child, nearly died in a bus accident as a teenager. She suffered multiple fractures of her spine, collarbone and ribs, a shattered pelvis, broken foot and a dislocated shoulder. She began to focus heavily on painting while recovering in a body cast. In her lifetime, she had 30 operations.

Life experience is a common theme in Kahlo's approximately 200 paintings, sketches and drawings. Her physical and emotional pain are depicted starkly on canvases, as is her turbulent relationship with her husband, fellow artist Diego Rivera, who she married twice. Of her 143 paintings, 55 are self-portraits.

The devastation to her body from the bus accident is shown in stark detail in The Broken Column. Kahlo is depicted nearly naked, split down the middle, with her spine presented as a broken decorative column. Her skin is dotted with nails. She is also fitted with a surgical brace.

Kahlo's first self-portrait was Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress in 1926. It was painted in the style of 19th Century Mexican portrait painters who themselves were greatly influenced by the European Renaissance masters. She also sometimes drew from the Mexican painters in her use of a background of tied-back drapes. Self-Portrait - Time Flies (1929), Portrait of a Woman in White (1930) and Self-Portrait Dedicated to Leon Trotsky (1937) all bear this background.

I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best." - Frida Kahlo

In her second-self portrait, "Time Flies," Kahlo uses a folk style and vibrant colors. She wears peasant clothing, and the red, white and green in the painting are the colors of the Mexican flag.

During her life, self portrait is a subject that Frida Kahlo always returns to, as artists have always returned to their beloved themes - Rembrandt his Self Portrait, Vincent van Gogh his Sunflowers, and Claude Monet his Water Lilies.

Frida and Diego: Love and Pain

Kahlo and Rivera had a tumultuous relationship, marked by multiple affairs on both sides. Self-Portrait With Cropped Hair (1940), Kahlo is depicted in a man's suit, holding a pair of scissors, with her fallen hair around the chair in which she sits. This represents the times she would cut the hair Rivera loved when he had affairs.

The 1937 painting Memory, the Heart, shows Kahlo's pain over her husband's affair with her younger sister Christina. A large broken heart at her feet shows the intensity of Kahlo's anguish. Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera divorced in 1939, but reunited a year later and remarried. The Two Fridas (1939) depicts Kahlo twice, shortly after the divorce. One Frida wears a costume from the Tehuana region of Mexico, representing the Frida that Diego loved. The other Frida wears a European dress as the woman who Diego betrayed and rejected. Later, she is back in Tehuana dress in Self-Portrait as a Tehuana (1943) and Self Portrait (1948).

Pre-Columbian artifacts were common both in the Kahlo/Rivera home (Diego collected sculptures and idols, and Frida collected Jewelry) and in Kahlo's paintings. She wore jewelry from this period in Self-Portrait - Time Flies (1926), Self-Portrait With Monkey (1938) and Self-Portrait With Braid (1941), among others. Other Pre-Columbian artifacts are found in The Four Inhabitants of Mexico City (1938), Girl With Death Mask (1938) and Self-Portrait With Small Monkeys (1945).

My painting carries with it the message of pain." - Frida Kahlo

Surreal or Realist?

Frida Kahlo participated in the "International Exhibition of Surrealism" in 1940 at the Galeria de Arte, Mexicano. There, she exhibited her two largest paintings: The Two Fridas and The Wounded Table (1940). Surrealist Andrew Breton considered Kahlo a surrealistic, a label Kahlo rejected, saying she just painted her reality. However, In 1945, when Don Jose Domingo Lavin asked Frida Kahlo to read the book Moses and Monotheism by Sigmund Freud - whose psychoanalysis works Surrealism is based on - and paint her understanding and interpretation of this book. Frida Kahlo painted Moses, and this painting was recognized as second prize at the annual art exhibition in the Palacio de Bellas Artes.

Kahlo did not sell many paintings in her lifetime, although she painted occasional portraits on commission. She had only one solo exhibition in Mexico in her lifetime, in 1953, just a year before her death at the age of 47.

Today, her works sell for very high prices. In May 2006, Frida Kahlo self-portrait, Roots, was sold for $5.62 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York, sets a record as the most expensive Latin American work ever purchased at auction, and also makes Frida Kahlo one of the highest-selling woman in art.

Widely known for her Marxist leanings, Frida, along with Marxism Revolutionary Che Guevara and a small band of contemporary figures, has become a countercultural symbol of the 20th century, and created a legacy in art history that continues to inspire the imagination and mind. Born in 1907, dead at 47, Frida Kahlo achieved celebrity even in her brief lifetime that extended far beyond Mexico's borders, although nothing like the cult status that would eventually make her the mother of the selfie, her indelible image recognizable everywhere.

At the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City, her personal belongings are on display throughout the house, as if she still lived there. Kahlo was born and grew up in this building, whose cobalt walls gave way to the nickname of the Blue House. She lived there with her husband for some years, and she died there. The facility is the most popular museum in the Coyoacan neighborhood and among the most visited in Mexico City.

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Frida Kahlo: 100 Paintings Analysis, Biography, Quotes, & Art

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Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is remembered for her self-portraits, pain and passion, and bold, vibrant colors. She is celebrated in Mexico for her attention to Mexican and indigenous culture and by feminists for her depiction of the female experience and form. Kahlo, who suffered from polio as a child, nearly died in a bus accident as a teenager.

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Discover the multi-talented Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the Broadway hits 'Hamilton' and 'In the Heights'. Learn about his impact on theater and representation in the arts.

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Lin-Manuel Miranda Performs at the White House Poetry Jam:  (8 of 8)

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The official store for Selena Quintanilla

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Explore the works of Chicana writer Sandra Cisneros, author of 'The House on Mango Street'. Her writing often deals with the Latinx experience in the United States.

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Woman Without Shame/Mujer sin vergüenza

A brave new collection of poems from Sandra Cisneros, the best-selling author of The House on Mango Street.
Available in English and Spanish and now in paperback!

It has been twenty-eight years since Sandra Cisneros published a book of poetry. With dozens of never-before-seen poems, Woman Without Shame is a moving collection of songs, elegies, and declarations that chronicle her pilgrimage toward rebirth and the recognition of her prerogative as a woman artist. These bluntly honest and often humorous meditations on memory, desire, and the essential nature of love blaze a path toward self-awareness. For Cisneros, Woman Without Shame is the culmination of her search for home - in the Mexico of her ancestors and in her own heart.

Una valiente colección de poemas nuevos de Sandra Cisneros, autora del libro de mayor venta La casa en Mango Street.

Han pasado veintiocho años desde que Sandra Cisneros publicara un libro de poesía. Con decenas de poemas inéditos, Mujer sin vergüenza es una conmovedora colección de canciones, elegías y declaraciones que dan testimonio de su peregrinaje hacia un renacimiento y hacia el reconocimiento de su derecho como mujer artista. Estas meditaciones descarnadas y a menudo humorísticas sobre la memoria, el deseo y la naturaleza esencial del amor abren un camino hacia la autoconciencia. Para Cisneros, Mujer sin vergüenza es la culminación de la búsqueda de un hogar, en el México de sus antepasados y en su propio corazón.

The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize "is one of the most prestigious awards given to American poets, and one of the nation's largest literary prizes" (Poetry Foundation).

For more info on the award and a complete list of winners, please visit the Poetry Foundation website.

-Sandra Cisneros
SANDRA CISNEROS is a poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, performer, and artist. Her numerous awards include NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction, a MacArthur Fellowship, national and international book awards, including the PEN America Literary Award, and the National Medal of Arts. More recently, she received the Ford Foundation's Art of Change Fellowship, was recognized with the Fuller Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature, and won the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. In 2022, she was awarded the Poetry Foundation's Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.

In addition to her writing, Cisneros has fostered the careers of many aspiring and emerging writers through two nonprofits she founded: the Macondo Foundation and the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation.

As a single woman, she made the choice to have books instead of children. A citizen of both the United States and Mexico, Cisneros currently lives in San Miguel de Allende and makes her living by her pen.

-Sandra Cisneros
Sandra Cisneros es una poeta, cuentista, novelista, ensayista, performer y artista. Sus numerosos premios incluyen la Beca National Endowment for the Arts tanto en poesía como en ficción, la Beca MacArthur, varios premios de libros nacionales e internacionales como el PEN America Literary Award y la Medalla Nacional a las Artes. Recientemente, recibió la Beca Art of Change de la Fundación Ford, fue reconocida con el Premio Fuller a la Trayectoria Literaria y ganó el Premio PEN/Nabokov a la Trayectoria Literaria Internacional.

Además de su carrera literaria, Sandra ha apoyado a muchos aspirantes y escritores emergentes a través de dos organizaciones sin fines de lucro que ella misma fundó: la Fundación Macondo y la Fundación Alfredo Cisneros del Moral.

Como mujer soltera, eligió tener libros en lugar de hijos. Ciudadana tanto de los Estados Unidos como de México, Cisneros vive en la actualidad en San Miguel de Allende y se gana la vida con su pluma.

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Sandra Cisneros SANDRA CISNEROS is a poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, performer, and artist. Her numerous awards include NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction, a MacArthur Fellowship, national and international book awards, including the PEN America Literary Award, and the National Medal of Arts.

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Learn about Jorge Ramos, the influential Mexican-American journalist and author. His work in broadcast journalism has made him a trusted voice in the Latinx community.

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Jorge Ramos: Why journalists have an obligation to challenge power (with English subtitles) | TED

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez | Official Campaign Website

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Selena Quintanilla: The Life and Legacy of the “Queen of Tejano Music”

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Sandra Cisneros has won multiple awards, fellowships, and honors as an internationally recognized writer. On September 22, 2016, President Barack Obama presented Cisneros with the National Medal of Arts for her work. Her book called The House on Mango Street, has sold over six million copies and has been translated into over twenty languages.

Sandra Cisneros was born on December 20, 1954 in Chicago, Illinois. Although her parents met in Chicago, they were both from Mexico. They had seven children, but Cisneros was the only girl. A year after she was born, her parents had another daughter, but she died as a baby. When Cisneros was ten years old, she wrote her first poem. However, she did not write any more poetry until she was in high school. While in school, she was an active writer and was known as "the poet." After high school, Cisneros attended Loyola University of Chicago. In her third year of school she took a creative writing class and decided to continue studying writing. She graduated in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. Cisneros continued on to the University of Iowa where she graduated in 1978 with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing. After Cisneros graduated with her second degree, she returned to Chicago. She became a teacher and counselor at the Latino Youth Alternative High School, where she taught students that dropped out of school. A few years later, Cisneros returned to Loyola University of Chicago as an administrative assistant. Later on, she worked at many universities including; California State University at Chico, the University of California Berkeley, the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, and the University of New Mexico.

The first book Cisneros published was a short book of poetry called Bad Boys in 1980. Four years later, she published a fiction novel called The House on Mango Street in 1984. This book would go on to become one of her most famous writings. Just a year after it was published, The House on Mango Street won the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. Cisneros kept writing poems, short stories, and novels in both Spanish and English. She published her first full-length poetry book called My Wicked Wicked Ways in 1987. In 1991, Cisneros published a collection of short stories called Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories. This book won the PEN Center West Award for Best Fiction of l99l, the Quality Paperback Book Club New Voices Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and the Lannan Foundation Literary Award. It was also nominated as the Best Book of Fiction of 1991 by The Los Angeles Times, and it was selected as an important book of the year by The New York Times and The American Library Journal.

In 1994 Cisneros wrote her first children's book called Hairs/Pelitos which was written in both Spanish and English. That same year, she wrote another book of poetry called Loose Woman that won the Mountains & Plains Booksellers' Award. She wrote her second novel in 2002 that was called Caramelo. This book won the Premio Napoli award, and was selected as an important book of the year by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, and the Seattle Times. She wrote a picture book for "grown-ups" in 2012 called Have You Seen Marie? Her latest book called A House of My Own: Stories from My Life, is a collection of her personal essays. This book won the 2016 PEN Center USA Literary Award for creative nonfiction.

Along with her book awards, Cisneros earned many scholarships and fellowships for writing. She received two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1981 and 1988. After earning the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1995, she helped to organize a group called the Latino MacArthur Fellows, Los MacArturos. The members of this group all won MacArthur fellowships and work together to serve their communities. Cisneros also earned many other honors including: the Texas Institute of Letters Dobie-Paisano Fellowship (1984); the Illinois Artists Fellowship (1984); the Roberta Holloway Lectureship at the University of California, Berkeley (1988); the Texas Medal of the Arts (2003); the Fifth Star Award presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs (2015); the Tia Chucha's Lifetime Achievement Award (2016); the Fairfax Prize (2016); and the Ford Foundation's Art of Change Fellowship (2018). Cisneros has continued to make a positive impact on her community by starting the Macondo Foundation and the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation for writers. She has been recognized for her work by earning honorary degrees from many universities including: The State University of New York at Purchase; Loyola University, Chicago; DePaul University; and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Cisneros currently lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico with her four dogs.

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Internationally recognized writer Sandra Cisneros is best known for "The House on Mango Street," which has sold over six million copies. Learn more at womenshistory.org.

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After graduating, she worked as a high school teacher and counselor. She was also a visiting writer and gave lectures at many universities.

In 1984 Cisneros published The House on Mango Street. The book is about a young girl growing up in a Latino neighborhood in Chicago. It won the Before Columbus Foundation's American Book Award in 1985. Cisneros also wrote Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991), which won numerous awards, including the Lannan Foundation Literary Award. The children's book Hairs/Pelitos (1994) uses the differing hair textures within a single family to explore differences between people. The book is in both Spanish and English.

In addition to novels, Cisneros wrote several volumes of poetry. One of her most popular books of poems is My Wicked Wicked Ways (1987), a collection inspired by her experiences living in rural Mexico and urban Chicago. Cisneros published a book of essays about her life, A House of My Own: Stories from My Life, in 2015.

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Sandra Cisneros is a Mexican American author, poet, and educator. She is best known for her novel The House on Mango Street (1984). Early Life Cisneros was born in Chicago,...

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Who is Sonia Sotomayor? Lessons from Sonia Sotomayor for Kids For hispanic Heritage Month

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Book on Sorra App (access through teach hub)

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FRIDA KAHLO | Biografia | in Spanish historia mexico

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🎨 Frida Kahlo - Vida y arte | ProfedeELE.es

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (commonly referred to by her initials, AOC) is the youngest woman and youngest Latina to ever serve in the United States Congress. She is most well known for her progressive politics, community activism, and her wide-reaching social media presence.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born on October 13, 1989, in the Parkchester neighborhood of The Bronx. Her father, Sergio Ocasio-Roman, was a second generation Bronxite of Puerto Rican-descent who worked as a small business owner and architect throughout his life. Her mother, Blanca Ocasio-Cortez (née Cortez), was born in Puerto Rico and worked as a domestic worker. At an early age, Ocasio-Cortez's parents moved her and her brother, Gabriel, out of their Bronx apartment to a small house about 30 minutes away in suburban Yorktown Heights to have access to better educational opportunities. Ocasio-Cortez attended Yorktown High School and while there she participated in the National Hispanic Institute's Lorenzo de Zavala (LDZ) Youth Legislative Session. She also won second place in the microbiology category of the 2007 Intel Science and Engineering Fair in appreciation of her research project, the MIT Lincoln Laboratory named a small asteroid after her: 23238 Ocasio-Cortez.

After graduating high school in 2007, Ocasio-Cortez attended Boston University and graduated cum laude with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Economics and International Relations. She attended on the John F. Lopez Fellowship, which was an experience-based learning opportunity sponsored by the National Hispanic Institute. Her father passed unexpectantly during her sophomore year, and his medical bills left her family vulnerable to a potential foreclosure on their home. Her mother took on additional work as a school bus driver to save the house/cover the bills. Around this time, Ocasio-Cortez sought out an internship concentrating on foreign affairs and immigration issues in the late Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy's office, As the only Spanish speaker in the office, she often worked with constituents calling to locate family members recently detained and potentially deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.). After graduating college, OCASIO-CORTEZ returned to the Bronx and worked in various jobs, including: Educational Director for the National Hispanic Institute; founder of Brook Avenue Press, a now defunct publishing press created to share positive stories about the Bronx; a community organizer for Bernie Sander's 2016 campaign for U.S. President; and a waitress and bartender.

Ocasio-Cortez has learned many life lessons that have influenced her political commitments, like the value of investing in healthcare, housing, education, immigration pathways, and ending police violence. Some of those lessons included learning at an early age that where you live can impact your educational opportunities, how medical bills and student loans can change the trajectory of one's life, and how devastating lack of access to immigration opportunities are to families across the country. After traveling to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation protests in North and South Dakota in 2016, she was inspired by those who were "putting their whole lives and everything that they had on the line for the protection of their community" and recommitted to working in her own community. All these lessons inspired Ocasio-Cortez's dedication to a life of service and her 2018 run for Congress.

Ocasio-Cortez drew national attention in the 2018 midterm primaries, where she defeated the 10-year incumbent in New York's 14th district, Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Crowley. Joe Crowley was known to be a creative fundraiser and outspent Ocasio-Cortez 10-to-1 on his campaign. While her Queens-based, mostly volunteer-run campaign, Ocasio-Cortez has said her campaign was considered a "long shot from the start." However, she ran a leaderless, grassroots effort inspired by activists at Standing Rock. Her competition was stiff: Crowley's campaign benefitted from major endorsements of other elected officials and large organizations. Ocasio-Cortez's endorsements, like her campaign, were from civil rights and progressive organizations such as MoveOn and Democracy for America. On June 26, 2018, she won the Democratic primary with 57.13 percent of the vote. Ocasio-Cortez went on to become the first woman of color to represent NY-14, as well as the youngest woman and Latina in history elected to serve in Congress.

Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, which believes "in a moral, wealthy America, no person should be too poor to live." Her first piece of legislation was co-sponsoring the Green New Deal resolution, based on Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. The legislation outlines a 10-year national economic plan that fights climate change, creates jobs to repair U.S. infrastructure, and fights social justice issues negatively impacting the country, such as economic inequality. As of 2022, Ocasio-Cortez has sponsored or co-sponsored over 100 pieces of legislation through the House of Representatives, 15 of which are now law. She is also a member of "the Squad," which has grown from its original four members, Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), Ilhan Omar (MN-5), and Ayanna Pressley (MA-7), to also include Jamaal Bowman (NY-16) and Cori Bush (MO-1). Together, they represent a new generation of progressive politicians working collaboratively to back national legislative efforts like the Green New Deal resolution and the Build Back Better Act.

In 2022, U.S. Soccer Olympian athlete Megan Rapinoe described Ocasio-Cortez on her show, Seeing America as someone who has "singlehandedly transformed our idea of what a politician can be, where they can come from, and how they can fight for what they believe in." The rest of Ocasio-Cortez's story remains untold,

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (commonly referred to by her initials, AOC) is the youngest woman and youngest Latina to ever serve in the United States Congress. She is most well known for her progressive politics, community activism, and her wide-reaching social media presence. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born on October 13, 1989, in the Parkchester neighborhood of The Bronx.

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Early Life

Born in the Parkchester neighborhood of The Bronx, Alexandria's parents moved the family 30 minutes north to Yorktown in search of a stronger public school for her and her brother. Alexandria's mother was born and raised in Puerto Rico and worked throughout her childhood as a domestic worker. Alexandria's father was a second-generation Bronxite, who ran a small business in The Bronx. Throughout her childhood, Representative Ocasio-Cortez traveled regularly to The Bronx to spend time with her extended family. From an early age, the stark contrast in educational opportunities available to her and her cousins, based on their respective zip codes, made an impression on her.

After high school, Alexandria attended Boston University, and graduated with degrees in Economics and International Relations (and tens of thousands of dollars in student loans). During this period she also had the opportunity to intern in the office of the late Senator Ted Kennedy. Her role in Senator Kennedy's office provided a firsthand view of the heartbreak families endured after being separated by ICE. These experiences led the Congresswoman to organize Latinx youth in The Bronx and across the United States, eventually, she began work as an Educational Director with the National Hispanic Institute, a role in which she helped Americans, DREAMers and undocumented youth in community leadership and college readiness.

Following the financial crisis of 2008, tragedy struck when her father passed away suddenly from cancer. The medical bills and other growing expenses placed their home at risk of foreclosure. Alexandria pulled extra shifts to work as a waitress and bartender to support her family, deepening her commitment to issues impacting working-class people.

First Political Campaign

During the 2016 presidential election, Alexandria worked as a volunteer organizer for Bernie Sanders in the South Bronx, expanding her skills in electoral organizing and activism.

Shortly thereafter, she was inspired by demonstrations being led by indigenous communities at Standing Rock, South Dakota in opposition to a new pipeline. She decided to travel across the country to join them, and left the experience resolved to dedicate her life to public service. A few months later, she launched her first campaign for Congress.

"The campaign was a long shot from the start. 'Everyone said, 'She's really cute, but maybe next time,'' Ocasio-Cortez recalls. Crowley, the fourth-ranking House Democrat, was a prolific fundraiser who had been in Congress since 1999. Her campaign was mostly volunteers. Staffers wrote their job titles on Post-it notes above their desks in their small Queens office. Ever the activist, her campaign had an informal, flexible structure resembling "leaderless" social movements like the one she saw at Standing Rock." - Time magazine, March 21,2019

In June 2018, Alexandria's campaign shocked the political establishment, when she defeated incumbent Joe Crowley. Her campaign was driven entirely by grassroots volunteers and donations. The Congresswoman refused to take any contributions from corporations, a practice she continues to this day.

First Term

In January of 2019, Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez was sworn-in as the youngest woman and youngest Latina ever to serve in Congress. Her first piece of legislation was the Green New Deal resolution, which envisions a 10-year national mobilization, akin to FDR's New Deal, that would put millions to work in good-paying, union jobs repairing the nation's infrastructure, reducing air and water pollution, and fighting the intertwined economic, social, racial and climate crises crippling the country.

Over her first term, she introduced a total of 23 pieces of legislation. Among them is her Loan Shark Prevention Act, which would cap credit card interest rates at 15%. The Congresswoman also introduced a group of bills collectively titled 'Just Society,' which would raise the federal poverty line, include immigrants in social safety net programs, require federal contractors to pay a living wage, strengthen renters' rights, and decrease recidivism.

In her first term, the Congresswoman saw three amendments pass into law, despite Republican control of the Senate and Presidency. One shifted $5 million from the failed war on drugs to treatment for opioid addiction and another secured $10 million to clean up toxic bombardment sites in Puerto Rico. Most notably, the Congresswoman also worked with Senator Schumer to include a Funeral Assistance Program into the COVID-19 relief package. To date, the program has reimbursed over a billion in funeral expenses to Americans who lost loved ones to COVID-19.

"There are some politicians who are very good on policy, and there are some politicians who are good communicators, and there are some politicians that have a way about them that relates very well to ordinary people. Alexandria has all three of those characteristics." - Senator Bernie Sanders

The Congresswoman also quickly gained a reputation as an effective questioner in committee hearings. Through committee hearings, she pressured a major pharmaceutical company into lowering the price of a drug that reduces HIV transmission; forced a defense contractor to return $16.1 million in federal funding; and got Michael Cohen to state on the record that President Donald Trump was engaging in tax fraud and to divulge other information that helped the New York Attorney General open an investigation into the Trump Organization.

The Congresswoman also maintained a commitment to doing a town hall nearly every month of her first term, hosting a total of 25 town halls, all of which provided language translation services and accessibility for the hearing impaired. The District Office also opened cases for 1,400 constituents, assisting with everything from immigration visas and Social Security payments to small business loans and veterans benefits. Various institutions in NY-14 also received $470M in federal grants during our first term.

Second Term

In January 2021, Rep. AOC was sworn-in for her second term in Congress. Just a few days later, on January 6, the Capitol was breached for the first time since the War of 1812. Along with several colleagues, Rep. AOC hid in one of the office buildings until the Capitol was secured and the House was called to vote to verify the results of the 2020 presidential election. In the wake of the attacks, the Congresswoman called to expel Members of Congress who had voted to invalidate the elections and who had urged on those domestic terrorists that attacked the Capitol. She also voted for a second time to impeach President Trump.

In March, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan - President Biden's plan to help the nation recover from COVID-19. The Congresswoman and other progressives fought hard to include key provisions, including an expanded Child Tax Credit, which most families began receiving in monthly installments that summer.

"When I ask [Rep. Ayanna] Pressley what popular narratives [about Rep. Ocasio-Cortez] miss, she cites humility. 'She certainly did not set out to be an icon or even a history maker. I think it was her destiny, but there is no calculation.' As Ocasio-Cortez puts it, 'I don't want to be a savior, I want to be a mirror.'" - Vanity Fair, October 28, 2020.

In April 2021, the Congresswoman reintroduced her Green New Deal resolution - growing the list of co-sponsors to over 115. In the three years since the resolution was first introduced, the Green New Deal has inspired over a dozen pieces of legislation and 10 regional Green New Deals.

In August 2021, after the federal eviction moratorium expired, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez joined Rep. Cori Bush for a sit-in on the Capitol Steps that lasted several days. Ultimately, the Biden administration reversed its position and extended the ban. Though their executive order was struck down by conservatives on the Supreme Court several weeks later, this time was invaluable for families and landlords trying to access Emergency Rental Relief and stay in their homes.

Later that month, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez worked with the State Department to help Afghan evacuees. Along with Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez led 70 Members of Congress in calling on the Biden administration to increase the cap on refugees to 200,000 people.

In September, unprecedented floods devastated the Congresswoman's district and other parts of New York and New Jersey. Sadly, several constituents were killed - having drowned in basement apartments. In the aftermath, the Congresswoman worked with the President and others to get one of the fastest FEMA disaster declarations in history. So far, almost 25,000 New York families have received $165 million in assistance.

By the end of 2021, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez had submitted 30 amendments, including one which doubled the funding to replace and update lead water infrastructure in schools and childcare programs - and another which prohibited funds from being used to provide weapons or military aid or military training to Saudi Arabia's Rapid Intervention Force (RIF), the unit responsible for the murder of U.S. journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

In March of 2022, President Biden signed into law an omnibus bill to keep the federal government funded and open. This legislation included nearly $7 million in funding for 10 community projects that will serve New York's 14th Congressional District. The community projects include youth violence interventions, educational supports, workforce training in green jobs and home healthcare, and support for Plaza Del Sol Health Center and Elmhurst Hospital.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ( born October 13, 1989), also known by her initials AOC, is an American politician and activist. She has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since 2019, as a member of the Democratic Party.

On June 26, 2018, Ocasio-Cortez drew national recognition when she won the Democratic Party's primary election for New York's 14th congressional district. She defeated Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Crowley, a 10-term incumbent, in what was widely seen as the biggest upset victory in the 2018 midterm election primaries. She easily won the November general election, defeating Republican Anthony Pappas. She was reelected in the 2020 and 2022 elections.

Taking office at age 29, Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States Congress. She has been noted for her substantial social media presence relative to her fellow members of Congress. Ocasio-Cortez attended Boston University, where she double-majored in international relations and economics, graduating . She was previously an activist and worked as a waitress and bartender before running for Congress in 2018.

Alongside Rashida Tlaib, Ocasio-Cortez was the first female member of the Democratic Socialists of America elected to serve in Congress. She advocates a progressive platform that includes support for workplace democracy, Medicare for All, tuition-free public college, a federal jobs guarantee, a Green New Deal, and abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Early life and education

Ocasio-Cortez was born in the New York City borough of the Bronx on October 13, 1989, the daughter of Sergio Ocasio-Roman and Blanca Ocasio-Cortez ( née Cortez). She has a younger brother named Gabriel. Her father was born in the Bronx to a Puerto Rican family and became an architect; her mother was born in Puerto Rico. Ocasio-Cortez lived with her family in an apartment in the Bronx neighborhood of Parkchester until she was five, when the family moved to a house in suburban Yorktown Heights.

Ocasio-Cortez attended Yorktown High School, graduating in 2007. In high school and college, Ocasio-Cortez went by the name of "Sandy Ocasio". She came in second in the microbiology category of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in 2007 with a research project on the effect of antioxidants on the lifespan of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. In a show of appreciation for her efforts, the MIT Lincoln Laboratory named a small asteroid after her: 23238 Ocasio-Cortez. In high school, she took part in the National Hispanic Institute's Lorenzo de Zavala (LDZ) Youth Legislative Session. She later became the LDZ Secretary of State while she attended Boston University. Ocasio-Cortez had a John F. Lopez Fellowship.

After graduating from high school, Ocasio-Cortez enrolled at Boston University. Her father died of lung cancer in 2008 during her second year, and Ocasio-Cortez became involved in a lengthy probate battle to settle his estate. She has said that the experience helped her learn "first-hand how attorneys appointed by the court to administer an estate can enrich themselves at the expense of the families struggling to make sense of the bureaucracy". During college, Ocasio-Cortez was an intern for U.S. senator Ted Kennedy in his section on foreign affairs and immigration issues. In interviews, she claimed to have been the only Spanish speaker in the office and the sole person responsible for assisting Spanish-speaking constituents. Ocasio-Cortez graduated cum laude from Boston University in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in both international relations and economics.

Early career

After college, Ocasio-Cortez moved back to the Bronx and took a job as a bartender and waitress to help her mother-a house cleaner and school bus driver-fight foreclosure of their home. She later launched Brook Avenue Press, a now-defunct publishing firm for books that portrayed the Bronx in a positive light. Ocasio-Cortez also worked for the nonprofit National Hispanic Institute.

During the 2016 primary, Ocasio-Cortez worked as an organizer for Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign. After the general election, she traveled across America by car, visiting places such as Flint, Michigan, and Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota, and speaking to people affected by the Flint water crisis and the Dakota Access Pipeline. In an interview she recalled her December 2016 visit to Standing Rock as a tipping point, saying that before that, she had believed that the only way to run for office effectively was to have access to wealth, social influence, and power. But her visit to North Dakota, where she saw others "putting their whole lives and everything that they had on the line for the protection of their community", inspired her to begin to work for her own community. One day after she visited North Dakota, she got a phone call from Brand New Congress, which was recruiting progressive candidates (her brother had nominated her soon after Election Day 2016). She has credited Jabari Brisport's unsuccessful City Council campaign with restoring her belief in electoral politics, in running as a socialist candidate, and in Democratic Socialists of America as an organization.

U.S. House of Representatives

Taking office at age 29, Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States Congress, and also the youngest member of the 116th Congress.

Ocasio-Cortez submitted her first piece of legislation, the Green New Deal, to the House on February 7, 2019. She and Senator Ed Markey released a joint non-binding resolution laying out the main elements of a 10-year "economic mobilization" that would phase out fossil fuel use and overhaul the nation's infrastructure. Their plan called for implementing the "social cost of carbon" that was part of the Obama administration's plans to address climate change. In the process it aimed to create jobs and boost the economy. According to CNBC, an initial outline the Green New Deal called for "completely ditching fossil fuels, upgrading or replacing 'every building' in the country and 'totally overhaul[ing] transportation' to the point where 'air travel stops becoming necessary'". The outline set a goal of having the U.S. "creating 'net zero' greenhouse gases in 10 years. Activist groups such as Greenpeace and the Sunrise Movement came out in favor of the plan. No Republican lawmakers voiced support. The plan gained support from some Democratic senators, including Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker; other Democrats, such as Senator Dianne Feinstein and House speaker Nancy Pelosi, dismissed the proposal.

Senate Republicans called for an early vote on the Green New Deal on March 26 without allowing discussion or expert testimony. In protest, Senate Democrats voted "present" or against the bill, resulting in a 57-0 defeat on the Senate floor. In March 2019, a group of UK activists proposed that the Labour Party adopt a similar plan, "Labour for a Green New Deal". The group said it was inspired by the Sunrise Movement and the work Ocasio-Cortez has done in the US.

Ocasio-Cortez reacted to the 2021 Texas power crisis by organizing a fundraiser to provide food, water, and shelter to affected Texans. The fundraiser, which began on February 18, raised $2million in its first day and $5million by February 21. The money went to organizations such as the Houston Food Bank and the North Texas Food Bank. Ocasio-Cortez also traveled to Houston to help volunteers with recovery.

On April 15, 2021, Ocasio-Cortez and three other senators called a press conference to announce a bill that they had introduced to implement postal banking pilot programs in rural and low-income urban neighborhoods where millions of households cannot access or afford standard banking services. Ocasio-Cortez described the families she sees in her urban community who need to rely on check cashing companies that charge exorbitant interest rates due to the absence of mainstream banks. "They'll show up to a check cashing place and imagine cashing your stimulus check...and having 10 to 20% of that check taken away from you."

Committee assignments

Committee on Oversight and Accountability' (Vice Ranking Member, 2023-present)

Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services

Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs

Committee on Natural Resources
Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources (Ranking Member, 2023-present)

Caucus memberships

Political positions

Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and embraces the democratic socialist label as part of her political identity. In an interview on NBC's Meet the Press, she described democratic socialism as "part of what I am. It's not all of what I am. And I think that that's a very important distinction." In response to a question about democratic socialism ultimately calling for an end to capitalism during a Firing Line interview on PBS, she answered: "Ultimately, we are marching towards progress on this issue. I do think that we are going to see an evolution in our economic system of an unprecedented degree, and it's hard to say what direction that that takes." Later at a conference she said "To me, capitalism is irredeemable."

Ocasio-Cortez supports progressive ideals such as workplace democracy, single-payer Medicare for All, tuition-free public college and trade school, a federal job guarantee, the cancellation of all $1.6trillion of outstanding student debt, guaranteed family leave, abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ending the privatization of prisons, enacting gun-control policies, and energy policy relying on 100% renewables. She told Anderson Cooper that she favors policies that "most closely resemble what we see in the UK, in Norway, in Finland, in Sweden".

Economic policy

Ocasio-Cortez is open to using Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), a heterodox economic theory with little support among mainstream academics, as an economic pathway to fund and enable implementation of her policy goals.

Ocasio-Cortez was among the 46 House Democrats who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.

In late 2020, Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib proposed a public banking bill to encourage creation of state and local public banks by giving them access to facilities from the Federal Reserve and setting national guidelines on public banking.

In April 2021, Ocasio-Cortez announced a bill that she and three senators had introduced to implement postal banking pilot programs in rural and low-income urban neighborhoods where millions of households cannot access or afford standard banking services.

Ocasio-Cortez has called for reducing defense spending. In December 2022, she was the only House Democrat to vote against an omnibus spending package because of increased funding for defense and federal agencies that oversee immigration.

Labor rights

Ocasio-Cortez has been a vocal supporter of labor rights, including a $15 per hour federal minimum wage. In May 2019, she returned to bartending at the Queensboro Restaurant in Jackson Heights, Queens, to promote the Raise the Wage Act, which would increase the minimum hourly wage for restaurant servers and other tipped workers from $2.13 to $15. Speaking to restaurant workers, customers and reporters, she criticized an exemption in U.S. minimum wage law for restaurants and the service sector that allows them to be paid less than $7.25 per hour, saying, "Any job that pays $2.13 per hour is not a job, it is indentured servitude."

On January 20, 2021, Ocasio-Cortez skipped the inauguration of Joe Biden in order to join the 2021 Hunts Point Produce Market strike in the Bronx.

In September 2019, Ocasio-Cortez introduced an anti-poverty policy proposal (packaged in a bundle called "A Just Society") that would take into account the cost of childcare, health care, and "new necessities" like Internet access when measuring poverty. The proposal would cap annual rent increases and ensure access to social welfare programs for people with convictions and undocumented immigrants. According to the U.S. census, about 40million Americans live in poverty.

Ocasio-Cortez has proposed a marginal tax as high as 70% on income above $10million to pay for the Green New Deal. According to tax experts contacted by The Washington Post, this tax would bring in extra revenue of $720billion per decade. But an analysis by the think tank Tax Foundation estimated that, after accounting for macroeconomic effects, the proposal would increase tax revenue by $189.1 billion over ten years if it is applied only to ordinary income, or decrease tax revenue by 53.1 billion if it is applied to all forms of income, including capital gains. Ocasio-Cortez has opposed and voted against the pay-as-you-go rule supported by Democratic leaders, which requires deficit-neutral fiscal policy, with all new expenditures balanced by tax increases or spending cuts. She and Representative Ro Khanna have condemned the rule for hamstringing new or expanded progressive policies. She cites Modern Monetary Theory as a justification for higher deficits to finance her agenda. Drawing a parallel with the Great Depression, she has argued that the Green New Deal needs deficit spending like the original New Deal.

Amazon HQ2 plan

Ocasio-Cortez opposed a planned deal by New York City to give Amazon.com $3 billion in state and city subsidies and tax breaks to build a secondary headquarters (Amazon HQ2) that was expected to bring in $27 billion in tax revenue for the city and state, in an area near her congressional district, saying that the city should instead itself invest $3 billion in the district. Some commentators criticized her remarks on the grounds that she did not understand tax breaks are discounts on money paid to, not by, the government, that "New York does not have $3 billion in cash" it would "give" to Amazon, and that between 25,000 and 40,000 new jobs, in addition to the high-paying tech jobs Amazon would have created, disappeared when Amazon left. Conservative columnist Marc Thiessen argued that "her economic illiteracy is dangerous" because "by helping to drive Amazon away, she did not save New York $3 billion; she cost New York $27 billion."

Environment

Ocasio-Cortez has called for "more environmental hardliners in Congress", calling climate change "the single biggest national security threat for the United States and the single biggest threat to worldwide industrialized civilization". Referring to a recent United Nations report indicating that the effects of climate change could become irreversible unless carbon emissions are reined in within the next 12 years, she has argued that global warming must be addressed immediately to avert human extinction.

Ocasio-Cortez's environmental plan, the Green New Deal, advocates for the U.S. to transition to an electrical grid running on 100% renewable energy and to end the use of fossil fuels within ten years. The changes, estimated to cost roughly $2.5trillion per year, would be financed in part by higher taxes on the wealthy. She has said she has an "open mind" about nuclear power's role in the Green New Deal, but has been criticized for ignoring it in her proposals for the deal.

Healthcare

Ocasio-Cortez supports transitioning to a single-payer healthcare system and considers medical care a human right. She says that a single government health insurer should cover every American, reducing overall costs. Her campaign website says, "Almost every other developed nation in the world has universal healthcare. It's time the United States catch up to the rest of the world in ensuring all people have real healthcare coverage that doesn't break the bank." Many 2020 Democratic presidential candidates adopted the Medicare-for-all proposal.

In June 2019 and in July 2021, Ocasio-Cortez proposed legislation that would remove restrictions placed on researching the medical use of psilocybin.

Social issues

Ocasio-Cortez campaigned in favor of establishing tuition-free public colleges and trade schools. She has said she is still paying off student loans herself and wants to cancel all student debt.

Immigration

Ocasio-Cortez has expressed support for defunding and abolishing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency on multiple occasions. In February 2018 she called it "a product of the Bush-era Patriot Act suite of legislation" and "an enforcement agency that takes on more of a paramilitary tone every single day". That June, she said she would "stop short of fully disbanding the agency", and would rather "create a pathway to citizenship for more immigrants through decriminalization". She later clarified that this does not mean ceasing all deportations. Two days before the primary election, Ocasio-Cortez attended a protest at an ICE child-detention center in Tornillo, Texas. She was the only Democrat to vote against H.R. 648, a bill to fund and reopen the government, because it funded ICE.

In January 2021, Ocasio-Cortez expressed support for the Roadmap to Freedom resolution to guide future immigration policy championed by Representative Pramila Jayapal. The resolution aims to safeguard vulnerable migrants while reducing criminal prosecutions of migrants.

Detention centers for undocumented immigrants

In June 2019, Ocasio-Cortez compared the detention centers for undocumented immigrants under the Trump administration at the Mexico-United States border to " concentration camps". In response to criticism from both Republicans and Democrats, Ocasio-Cortez said they had conflated concentration camps ("the mass detention of civilians without trial") with death camps. She refused to apologize for using the term: "If that makes you uncomfortable, fight the camps, not the nomenclature."

In July 2019, Ocasio-Cortez visited migrant detention centers and other facilities in Texas as part of a congressional delegation to witness the border crisis firsthand. She described the conditions as "horrifying".

In February 2021, when the Biden administration reopened a Carrizo Springs, Texas, center to house unaccompanied migrant children, Ocasio-Cortez responded that such actions "never will be okay-no matter the administration or party". For short-term measures to address the situation, she called for mandatory licensing for such centers and urged reconsideration of how the centers are "contracted out".

LGBTQ equality

Ocasio-Cortez is a proponent of LGBTQ rights and LGBTQ equality. At the January 2019 New York City Women's March in Manhattan, Ocasio-Cortez gave a detailed speech in support of measures needed to ensure LGBTQ equality in the workplace and elsewhere. She has also spoken in support of transgender rights, specifically saying, "Trans rights are civil rights are human rights."

Awards and honors

The MIT Lincoln Laboratory named the asteroid 23238 Ocasio-Cortez after her when she was a senior in high school in recognition of her second-place finish in the 2007 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. Ocasio-Cortez was named the 2017 National Hispanic Institute Person of the Year by Ernesto Nieto. In 2019, Ocasio-Cortez received the Adelle Foley Award. She was named as one of the 2019 BBC 100 Women.

Personal life

After the death of Ocasio-Cortez's father in 2008, her mother and grandmother moved to Florida due to financial hardship. She still has family in Puerto Rico, where her grandfather was living in a nursing home before he died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Ocasio-Cortez said that "to be Puerto Rican is to be the descendant of... African Moors [and] slaves, Taino Indians, Spanish colonizers, Jewish refugees, and likely others. We are all of these things and something else all at once-we are Boricua."

Ocasio-Cortez is a Catholic.

During the 2018 election campaign, Ocasio-Cortez resided in Parkchester, Bronx, with her partner, web developer Riley Roberts. They got engaged in April 2022 in Puerto Rico.

Images for kids

Ocasio-Cortez with Kerri Evelyn Harris

Sanders rally Council Bluffs, Iowa

Ocasio-Cortez speaks on a Green New Deal in front of the Capitol Building in February 2019.

In Spanish: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez para niños

List of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States Congress

Women in the United States House of Representatives

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Clemente's first game in the major leagues was on April 1, 1955. He spent 18 seasons with the Pirates, leading them to two World Series titles, in 1960 and 1971. Clemente had an outstanding throwing arm, and he won 12 Gold Glove awards for his performance in right field. Clemente was also a strong hitter. He won four National League batting titles. In 1972, in his last at-bat, he got his 3,000th base hit. At the time, only 10 other players had done this.

Clemente had to contend with prejudice and racism because he was Black and did not speak English as his first language. He was mocked for his accent, and, even though he insisted on being called Roberto, others often called him "Bob" or "Bobby." He worked to gain equal treatment for Hispanic baseball players and helped to change opinions about Latin Americans and Blacks.

During the off-season Clemente would return to Puerto Rico. He spent time with his family, played winter baseball in the Puerto Rican League, and opened baseball clinics for young players. After a massive earthquake hit Nicaragua in December 1972, Clemente headed relief efforts in Puerto Rico. When he heard that the relief supplies for the Nicaraguan people were being stolen by the army, he decided to go with the next plane of supplies. Shortly after takeoff on December 31 the plane crashed, and Clemente was killed.

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Roberto Clemente was a Puerto Rican baseball player. He was one of the first Latin American baseball stars in the United States. He spent his entire Major League Baseball...

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Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker ( August 18, 1934 - December 31, 1972) was a Puerto Rican professional baseball right fielder. He played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates. After his early death, he was posthumously inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973, becoming both the first Caribbean and the first Latin-American player to be inducted.

Roberto was born in Barrio San Antón, Carolina, Puerto Rico, to Melchor Clemente and Luisa Walker. He was the youngest of seven children. During Clemente's childhood, his father worked as a foreman for sugar cane crops in the northeastern part of the island. Clemente and his brothers worked alongside his father in the fields, loading and unloading trucks. As a youth, Clemente was a track and field star and Olympic hopeful before deciding to turn his attention to baseball.

Clemente had first shown interest in baseball early in life. He often played against neighboring barrios.

He attended Julio Vizcarrondo Coronado High School in Carolina. During his first year in high school, he was recruited by Roberto Marín to play softball with the Sello Rojo team after he was seen playing baseball in barrio San Antón. He was with the team two years as a shortstop.

Clemente joined Puerto Rico's amateur league when he was 16 years old, playing for the Ferdinand Juncos team, which represented the municipality of Juncos.

Puerto Rican baseball (1952-1954)

Clemente's professional baseball career began at age 18 when he accepted a contract from Pedrín Zorilla with Cangrejeros de Santurce ("Crabbers"), a winter league team and franchise of the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League (LBPPR). Clemente signed with the team on October 9, 1952. He was a bench player during his first season but was promoted to the Cangrejeros' starting lineup the following season. During this season he hit .288 as the team's leadoff hitter.

While Clemente was playing in the LBPPR, the Brooklyn Dodgers offered him a contract with one of the team's Triple-A affiliates.

Minor league baseball (1954)

After signing with the Dodgers on February 19, 1954, Clemente moved to Montreal to play with the Royals. Clemente received assistance from bilingual teammates such as infielder Chico Fernandez and pitchers Tommy Lasorda and Joe Black.

Black was the original target of the Pittsburgh Pirates' June 1, 1954, scouting trip to Richmond. Conducted by pitching coach Clyde Sukeforth, the mission's focus quickly shifted when he witnessed Clemente's throwing and batting prowess in pre-game drills.

The Pirates made Clemente the first selection of the Rule 5 draft that took place on November 22, 1954.

Major League Baseball: Pittsburgh Pirates (1955-1969)

Clemente debuted with the Pirates on April 17, 1955. For all but the first seven weeks of his major league career, Clemente wore number 21. He chose that number because his full name (Roberto Clemente Walker) had that many letters. For his first few weeks, Clemente wore the number 13, as his teammate Earl Smith was wearing number 21. It was later reassigned to Clemente.

Early in his career with the Pirates, he was frustrated by racial and ethnic tensions. Clemente was at a double disadvantage, as he was a Latin American and Caribbean player whose first language was Spanish and was of partially African descent. Clemente responded to this by saying "I don't believe in color." He said that, during his upbringing, he was taught never to discriminate against someone based on ethnicity.

The year before, the Pirates had hired Curt Roberts, their first African-American player. They were the fifth team in the NL and ninth in the major leagues to do so, seven years after Jackie Robinson joined the Dodgers. When Clemente arrived in Pittsburgh, Roberts befriended him and helped him adjust to life in the major league, as well as in the Pittsburgh area.

Clemente had to sit out several games, as he had suffered a lower back injury in Puerto Rico the previous winter. He finished his rookie season with a .255 batting average, despite trouble hitting certain types of pitches. His defensive skills were highlighted during this season.

Clemente was an All-Star every season he played in the 1960s. Only in 1968 he failed to hit above .300. He was a Gold Glove winner for each of his final 12 seasons, beginning in 1961.

He won the NL batting title four times: 1961, 1964, 1965, and 1967. He won the league's MVP Award in 1966.

In 1967, a plurality of major league GMs declared Clemente "the best player in baseball today."

In an effort to make him seem more American, sportswriters started calling him Bob or Bobby and his baseball cards even listed him as Bob Clemente. He disliked the practice and asked that it be stopped.

During the off-seasons (except the 1958-59, 1962-63, 1965-66, 1968-69, 1971-72, and 1972-73 seasons), Clemente played professionally for the Santurce Crabbers, Criollos de Caguas, and San Juan Senadores in the Puerto Rican baseball winter league, where he was considered a star. He sometimes managed the San Juan team.

In September 1958, Clemente joined the United States Marine Corps Reserve. He served his six-month active duty commitment at Parris Island, South Carolina, Camp LeJeune in North Carolina, and Washington, D.C.

At Parris Island, Clemente received recruit training with Platoon 346 of the 3rd Recruit Battalion. The rigorous Marine Corps training programs helped Clemente physically; he added strength by gaining ten pounds and said his back troubles (caused by being in a 1954 auto accident) had disappeared. He was a private first class in the Marine Corps Reserve until September 1964.

Pittsburgh Pirates, 1970s

The 1970 season was the last one that the Pirates played at Forbes Field before moving to Three Rivers Stadium; for Clemente, abandoning this stadium was an emotional situation. The Pirates' final game at Forbes Field occurred on June 28, 1970. That day, Clemente said that it was hard to play in a different field, saying, "I spent half my life there." The night of July 24, 1970, was declared "Roberto Clemente Night"; on this day, several Puerto Rican fans traveled to Three Rivers Stadium and cheered Clemente while wearing traditional Puerto Rican attire. A ceremony to honor Clemente took place, during which he received a scroll with 300,000 signatures compiled in Puerto Rico, and several thousands of dollars were donated to charity work following Clemente's request.

During the 1970 season, Clemente compiled a .352 batting average; the Pirates won the NL East pennant but were subsequently eliminated by the Cincinnati Reds. During the offseason, Roberto Clemente experienced some tense situations while he was working as manager of the Senadores and when his father, Melchor Clemente, experienced medical problems and underwent surgery.

Following the conclusion of the 1971 season, he received the World Series Most Valuable Player Award.

3,000th career hit

Clemente played in 102 games and hit .312 during the 1972 season. He also made the annual NL All-Star roster for the twelfth time (he played in 14/15 All-Star games) and won his twelfth consecutive Gold Glove.

On September 30, he hit a double in the fourth inning off Jon Matlack of the New York Mets at Three Rivers Stadium for his 3,000th hit. It was his last regular season at-bat of his career.

His last game was October 11, 1972 at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium in the fifth and final game of the 1972 NLCS. He and Bill Mazeroski were the last Pirate players remaining from the 1960 World Series championship team.

Charitable work and death

Clemente spent much of his time during the off-season involved in charity work. When Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua, was affected by a massive earthquake on December 23, 1972, Clemente (who visited Managua three weeks before the quake) immediately arranged emergency relief flights.

He decided to accompany a relief flight. The airplane with Clemente on board crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico immediately after takeoff on December 31, 1972, due to engine failure.

A search and rescue effort was immediately launched. An empty flight case which apparently belonged to Clemente was the only personal item of his which was recovered from the plane. His body was never recovered.

At the time of his death, Clemente had established several records with the Pirates, including most triples in a game (three) and hits in two consecutive games (ten). He won 12 Gold Glove Awards and shares the record of most won among outfielders with Willie Mays.

Personal life

Clemente was married on November 14, 1964, to Vera Zabala at San Fernando Church in Carolina. The couple had three children: Roberto Jr., born in 1965, Luis Roberto, born in 1966, and Roberto Enrique, born in 1969. Vera Clemente died on November 16, 2019, aged 78.

Clemente was a devout Catholic.

In the 1958-59 off-season, Clemente enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, and served during off-seasons through 1964. He was inducted into the Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame in 2003, and into the Puerto Rican Veterans Hall of Fame 15 years later.

Hall of Fame

On March 20, 1973, the Baseball Writers' Association of America held a special election for the Baseball Hall of Fame. They voted to waive the waiting period for Clemente, due to the circumstances of his death, and posthumously elected him for induction into the Hall of Fame, giving him 393 out of 420 available votes, for 92.7% of the vote.

Clemente's Hall of Fame plaque originally had his name as "Roberto Walker Clemente" instead of the proper Spanish format "Roberto Clemente Walker"; the plaque was recast in 2000 to correct the error. Both plaques are currently on display in the Hall of Fame, the new one in the plaque gallery and the original in the "sandlot kids clubhouse" area.

MLB awards and achievements

NL MVP Award (1966)

NL Player of the Month Award (May 1960, May 1967, July 1969)

World Series MVP Award (1971)

NL Gold Glove Award (1961-1972)

Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award (2006)

Achievements

NL All-Star (1960-1967, 1969-1972)

NL leader in batting average (1961, 1964, 1965, 1967)

NL leader in hits (1964, 1967)

NL leader in triples (1969)

NL leader in putouts as right fielder (1958, 1961, 1966)

NL leader in fielding average as right fielder and outfielder (1972)

Other honors and awards

Main pages: List of awards and honors received by Roberto Clemente and Legacy of Roberto Clemente

Following his death, Clemente received numerous awards, recognitions and homages. Dozens of schools, streets, bridges, public parks, buildings and sports venues have been named in his honor. Clemente is the athlete with most statues and monuments dedicated in the world, with more than a dozen in several countries.

In 2012, the Puerto Rico Professional Baseball League (LBPPR) was renamed Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente, the number 21 was also permanently retired. He had been inducted in several Hall of Fames for his performance on the field and also for his humanitarian as part of the World Sports Humanitarian Hall (1995). Clemente has been the subject of several documentaries, books and other media.

The government of Puerto Rico recognizes Clemente as a prócer (or national hero) and he has received the Congressional Gold Medal, Presidential Citizens Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom from the federal government of the United States. An initiative to have him canonized by the Catholic Church took place during the 2010s.

In 2022, honoring 50 years since his passing, the MLB proclaimed September 15 as "Roberto Clemente Day".

Roberto Clemente Award

Since 1971, MLB has presented the Roberto Clemente Award (named the Commissioner's Award in 1971 and 1972) every year to a player with outstanding baseball playing skills who is personally involved in community work. A trophy and a donation check for a charity of the player's choice are presented annually at the World Series. A panel of three makes the final determination of the award recipient from an annual list of selected players.

Interesting facts about Roberto Clemente

To induct Roberto Clemente, who died at a young age and had such a historic career, the Hall of Fame changed its rules of eligibility.

Clemente was an All-Star for 13 seasons, selected to 15 All-Star Games.

On July 25, 1956, in a 9-8 Pittsburgh win against the Chicago Cubs, Clemente hit the only walk-off inside-the-park grand slam in professional baseball history.

He was the National League (NL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1966, the NL batting leader in 1961, 1964, 1965, and 1967, and a Gold Glove Award winner for 12 consecutive seasons from 1961 through 1972.

His batting average was over .300 for 13 seasons and he had 3,000 hits during his major league career.

He also was a two-time World Series champion.

Clemente was the first player from the Caribbean and Latin America to win a World Series as a starting position player (1960), to receive an NL MVP Award (1966), and to receive a World Series MVP Award (1971).

Clemente was involved in charity work in Latin American and Caribbean countries during the off-seasons. He often delivered baseball equipment and food to those in need.

MLB renamed its annual Commissioner's Award in his honor. Now known as the Roberto Clemente Award, it is given to the player who "best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual's contribution to his team."

After his death, the Pirates retired his uniform number 21.

Roberto Clemente quotes

"A country without idols is nothing."

"If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth."

"I want to be remembered as a ballplayer who gave all he had to give."

"I think all human beings are equal, but one has to unceasingly fight hard to maintain that equality."

"When I was a boy, I realized what lovely people my mother and father were. I was treated real good. I learned the right way to live."

In Spanish: Roberto Clemente para niños

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Roberto Clemente’s Story Ballplayer. MVP. Veteran. Humanitarian. Husband. Father. Legend. Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker is one of the greatest athletes and humanitarians of the 20th century. Born August 18, 1934 in Barrio San Antón, Puerto Rico to laundress Luisa Walker and sugarcane laborer Melchor Clemente, Roberto represents the strength, perseverance, and honor of the Puerto […]

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Laurie Hernandez (born June 9, 2000, Old Bridge Township, New Jersey, U.S.) is an American gymnast who participated in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Hernandez and her teammates Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, and Madison Kocian, dubbed the "Final Five," won the women's artistic gymnastics team gold medal. Hernandez also captured an individual silver medal in the balance beam event.

Hernandez was born to Puerto Rican parents in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She grew up in Old Bridge Township, New Jersey, and began practicing gymnastics in 2005. At the age of nine, after testing high in basic skills and physical abilities, she was invited to attend development camps sponsored by USA Gymnastics, the national governing body for the sport. Beginning in 2012 she competed in national competitions at the junior level. In 2015 she won the junior all-around title at both the U.S. Classic and the U.S. national championships.

Hernandez moved to the senior elite (the highest) level of competitive gymnastics in 2016. At the U.S. national championships that year she placed third in the all-around. In addition, she won the bronze medal in the uneven bars and the balance beam and tied for the bronze in the floor exercise. Later that year, at the U.S. Olympic trials, she placed second behind Biles in the all-around. Hernandez also won the balance beam and took third in the floor exercise. Her stellar performance earned her a coveted spot on the Olympic women's squad that became known as the "Final Five." Hernandez was the youngest member of the U.S. team by three years and the only athlete selected to the team who was competing in her first year as a senior-level gymnast. She was also the first U.S. Latina gymnast to qualify for the Olympics. In the team event final in Rio, Hernandez turned in strong scores in the vault, balance beam, and floor exercise to help the U.S. women win the gold medal by more than eight points over their nearest competitors, Russia. In the individual balance beam event, Hernandez was nearly flawless. She posted a score of 15.333, finishing a close second to the gold medalist, Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands (15.466), and ahead of Biles (14.733), who claimed the bronze.

Hernandez took a break from gymnastics after the Rio Olympics. She appeared on television shows, including the dance competition Dancing with the Stars, which she won with her professional partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, in 2016. Hernandez is the youngest winner of the show, being just 16 years old at the time. She chronicled her life in the book I Got This: To Gold and Beyond (2017) and released a children's picture book titled She's Got This (2018). Hernandez was honoured for her accomplishments by her home state when she was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2018. She was also noted for her outspokenness about the importance of athletes' mental health. In 2020 Hernandez opened up about emotional abuse she had faced from her former coach, Maggie Haney, during the 11 years she had participated in gymnastics. Haney was subsequently suspended from coaching for eight years. Hernandez has been dating fellow gymnast Charlotte Drury since 2020.

In 2019 Hernandez began training for competitions again. She entered the U.S. national championships in 2021 but withdrew from the competition after suffering a knee injury. She did not compete that year at the U.S. Olympic trials, which, along with the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, had been delayed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hernandez provided television commentary during the gymnastics competition at the Tokyo Games.

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Laurie Hernandez | Biography, Career, & Facts

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Laurie Hernandez is an American gymnast who participated in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Hernandez and her teammates Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, and Madison Kocian, dubbed the "Final Five," won the women's artistic gymnastics team gold medal. Hernandez also captured an

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Learn more about Laurie Hernandez’s accomplishments, career highlights, and biography

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Laurie Hernandez | Her Personal Story behind She's Got This

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Olympian Laurie Hernandez on Latino representation in gymnastics | Chat Box

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Breaking Barriers: The Story of Dr. Antonia Novello | First Hispanic Surgeon General

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America’s first woman and Latina Surgeon General, Dr. Antonia Novello, is not done yet.

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America’s first woman and Latina Surgeon General, Dr. Antonia Novello, is not done yet. | Rocky Mountain PBS

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Novello did not hold back in her new book, “Duty Calls: Lessons Learned from an Unexpected Life of Service.”

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

(born 1944). U.S. physician and public official Antonia Novello was both the first Hispanic and the first woman to become surgeon general of the United States. Her major initiatives included programs to increase AIDS awareness, to stop minors from smoking, and to provide better health care for children, women, and minorities.

She was born Antonia Coello on Aug. 23, 1944, in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. After undergoing surgery at age 18 to correct a serious colon condition that she had had since birth, Novello was inspired to become a physician so that she could help ease the suffering of other young people. She studied medicine at the University of Puerto Rico, where she earned her B.S. degree in 1965 and her M.D. degree in 1970. After medical school she married a Navy flight surgeon named Joseph R. Novello, and the couple soon moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., where she began her medical career. Novello completed a pediatric internship and residency and a fellowship in pediatric nephrology at the University of Michigan Medical Center. She went on to complete another pediatric fellowship in 1974-75 at Georgetown University Hospital. Novello broadened her education in 1982 when she earned a master's degree in public health from Johns Hopkins University.

After venturing into private practice as a pediatrician in Springfield, Va., Novello joined the staff of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1978. She played a critical role in the development of the Organ Transplantation Procurement Act of 1984 and also served as a fellow on the staff of the Senate's Labor and Human Resources Committee. In that position Novello consulted with legislators on bills concerning various health issues, including organ transplants and the warnings on cigarette packages. In 1986 she became the deputy director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the following year became its coordinator for AIDS research.

In 1990 Novello was appointed surgeon general of the United States by President George Bush. During her three years in that post, Novello was a strong advocate for children's health issues. She worked with several organizations to promote the immunization of children and the prevention of childhood injuries and was involved with the Healthy Children Ready to Learn Initiative. She was especially active in the fight against illegal alcohol and tobacco use among minors-denouncing, for example, the tobacco industry's use of cartoon characters such as "Joe Camel" to try to make smoking more appealing to young people.

In 1993 Novello stepped down from the post of surgeon general, but she continued to advocate for children's health issues by becoming the Special Representative for Health and Nutrition for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). She returned to Johns Hopkins University in 1996 as a visiting professor. In 1999 Novello became commissioner of the New York State Department of Health, addressing such local issues as protecting residents against the West Nile virus, providing better care for nursing home residents, and providing health care coverage for uninsured residents with low incomes.

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(born 1944). U.S. physician and public official Antonia Novello was both the first Hispanic and the first woman to become surgeon general of the United States. Her major initiatives included programs to increase AIDS awareness, to stop minors from smoking, and to provide better health care for children, women, and minorities.

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Antonia Coello Novello, M.D., (born August 23, 1944) is a Puerto Rican physician and public health administrator. She was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as 14th Surgeon General of the United States from 1990 to 1993. Novello was the first woman and first Hispanic to serve as Surgeon General. Novello also served as Commissioner of Health for the State of New York from 1999 to 2006. Novello has received numerous awards including more than fifty honorary degrees, was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2000, and has been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Pediatric nephrologist

In 1976, Novello opened her own private practice in Springfield, Virginia, where she worked as a pediatrician. However, she soon realized that she lacked adequate emotional detachment for her work so she terminated her practice. Novello stated in an interview, "When the pediatrician cries as much as the parents do, then you know it's time to get out."

Public Health Service

In 1979, Novello joined the Public Health Service and received a commission in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC). Her first assignment was as a project officer at the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism and Digestive Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). From 1976, she also held a clinical appointment in pediatrics at Georgetown University School of Medicine. During her years at NIH, Novello worked on an MPH degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, receiving the degree in 1982.

Novello held various positions at NIH before being appointed to Assistant Surgeon General grade in the PHSCC and assignment as the deputy director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in 1986. She also served as Coordinator for AIDS Research for NICHD from September 1987. In this role, she developed a particular interest in pediatric AIDS, which caught the attention of the White House.

Novello made major contributions to the drafting and enactment of the Organ Transplantation Procurement Act of 1984 while assigned to the United States Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, working with the staff of committee chairman Orrin Hatch.

Surgeon General

Novello was appointed Surgeon General by President George H. W. Bush, beginning her tenure on March 9, 1990, and was appointed to the temporary rank of vice admiral in the regular corps while the Surgeon General. She was the first woman and the first Hispanic to hold the position.

During her tenure as Surgeon General, Novello focused her attention on the health of women, children and minorities, as well as on underage drinking, smoking, and AIDS. She played an important role in launching the Healthy Children Ready to Learn Initiative. She was actively involved in working with other organizations to promote immunization of children and childhood injury prevention efforts. She spoke out often and forcefully about illegal underage drinking, and called upon the United States Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General to issue a series of eight reports on the subject.

Novello also worked to discourage illegal tobacco use by young people, and repeatedly criticized the tobacco industry for appealing to the youth market through the use of cartoon characters such as Joe Camel. A workshop that she convened led to the emergence of a National Hispanic/Latino Health Initiative.

.....

Novello left the post of Surgeon General on June 30, 1993, with the administration of President Bill Clinton praising her for her "vigor and talent."

Later years

After leaving the position of Surgeon General, Novello remained in the regular corps of the Public Health Service. She was assigned to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) as Special Representative for Health and Nutrition from 1993 to 1996 reverting to her permanent two-star rank of rear admiral. In 1996, she became visiting professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. She retired from the Public Health Service and the PHSCC shortly after with the grade of vice admiral.

In 1999, Governor of New York George Pataki appointed Novello as the Commissioner of Health for the State of New York. She served until 2006.

From 2008 to 2014, Novello was vice president of Women and Children Health and Policy Affairs at Disney Children's Hospital at Florida Hospital in Orlando, Florida.

As of December 31, 2014, Novello retired from her position as an executive director of public health policy at Florida Hospital - Orlando.

Public Health Service Meritorious Service Medal

Meritorious Service Medal

Surgeon General's Exemplary Service Medal

Public Health Service Distinguished Service Medal

Public Health Service Outstanding Service Medal

Public Health Service Commendation Medal

Public Health Service Citation Medal

Public Health Service Outstanding Unit Citation

Public Health Service Unit Commendation

Public Health Service National Emergency Preparedness Award

Humanitarian Service Medal

Public Health Service Foreign Duty Service Award

Public Health Service Regular Corps Ribbon

Commissioned Officers Association

Association of Military Surgeons of the United States

Reserve Officers Association

Surgeon General Badge

Office of the Secretary of Health and Human Services Badge

In 1994, Novello was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. In 2000, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

Antonia Novello, born on August 23, 1944, in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, was the oldest of three children. Growing up, she was raised primarily by her mother, Ana Delia Flores because her father died when she was eight years old. At birth, Novello was diagnosed with Congenital megacolon, a painful condition that required Novello to make frequent trips to the hospital. Although Novello was told at eight years old that she should have surgery to correct her problem, it would take another 10 years before such an operation would happen. Nevertheless, Novello managed to excel in her study to become a doctor. Her experience with that disease, left such an impact on her that she vowed to become a doctor so that "no other person is going to wait 18 years for surgery."

At an early age, Novello's mother, a school teacher and later high school principal, stressed the importance of an education. Novello excelled in her education and graduated from high school at the age of 15. She attended the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras where she received her Bachelor of Science degree in 1965. She went on to the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine in San Juan where she received her Doctor of Medicine degree in 1970. That same year, she married Joseph R. Novello and they both moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan where she continued her medical studies. Novello began a pediatric internship at University of Michigan Medical School. She became the first woman to receive the "University of Michigan Pediatrics Department Intern of the Year" award. In 1973, Novello and her husband moved to Washington D.C. to begin her residency in pediatric nephrology at Georgetown University School of Medicine Hospital until 1976. She also went to Johns Hopkins University.

Novello was married to former US Navy flight surgeon and psychiatrist, Joseph R. Novello. She was the sister-in-law of Saturday Night Live alumnus Don Novello, creator of the character persona Father Guido Sarducci.

Felony conviction - Now Sealed

In response to a complaint by a former New York State Department of Health employee that Novello used her departmental staff for personal purposes unrelated to her official duties, the New York State Inspector General launched an investigation and in January 2009 produced a report stating that while serving as Health Commissioner, she had routinely abused her authority over department personnel, "turn[ing] her staff at the Health Department into her personal chauffeurs, porters and shopping assistants during her seven-year tenure," and referred a criminal case against her to Albany County District Attorney David Soares. On May 11, 2009, Novello was charged with one count of defrauding the government, three counts of filing a false instrument, and 16 counts of theft of government services. At her arraignment by Judge Stephen Herrick, and represented by attorney E. Stewart Jones, she pleaded not guilty to all charges, but on June 26, 2009, in a plea deal with prosecutors, she pleaded guilty to one felony count of filing a false instrument involving a worker's duties in exchange for a light sentence and dropping the other charges. Her guilty plea was accepted by the court on August 13, 2009.

She was sentenced to pay $22,500 in restitution, a $5,000 fine, and spend 250 hours doing community service at a medical clinic for uninsured patients. Outside the court immediately after the sentencing, Novello called herself a victim of former co-workers and her lawyer called the crime an "administrative processing offense - nothing else." On March 31, 2022, by order of the Albany County Court, Judge Roger D. McDonough, the records were sealed.

In Spanish: Antonia Novello para niños

List of Puerto Ricans

Puerto Rican scientists and inventors

History of women in Puerto Rico

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History Making Women: Dr. Antonia Novello

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Jorge Ramos, in full Jorge Gilberto Ramos Ávalos, (born March 16, 1958, Mexico City, Mexico), Mexican American journalist who was perhaps the most prominent Hispanic newsperson in the United States, known as the " Walter Cronkite of Latino America." He notably was an anchor of Noticiero univision (1986- ).

Ramos graduated (1981) with a communications degree from Ibero-American University in Mexico City. He became a newswriter and, later, an on-air reporter for Televisa, the biggest media company in Mexico. The antiauthoritarian Ramos tired of Televisa's close ties to the Mexican government, however, and in 1983 he moved to the United States, where he was hired as a reporter for KMEX, a Spanish-language station in Los Angeles. KMEX was owned by a company that later became Univision, and Ramos soon transferred to the company's corporate headquarters in Miami to host a national morning show. In 1986, at the age of 28, he was promoted to the national news anchor position for Univision and began cohosting (with journalist María Elena Salinas) the channel's signature daily news program, Noticiero univision. In 1996 Ramos was granted a master's degree in international studies from the University of Miami.

Ramos earned the trust of large swaths of the Latino community through his willingness to pose tough questions, often of a slightly leftist bent, to powerful world leaders, notably Cuba's Fidel Castro, Ernesto Samper of Colombia, and U.S. Pres. Barack Obama; in 2015 Ramos was briefly removed from a press conference for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump after repeatedly attempting to ask about his controversial stance on undocumented immigrants in the United States. Polls routinely named Ramos as one of the most influential and trusted Hispanics in the United States. Moreover, his nightly news program was the highest-rated newscast among American Hispanics. In 2007 he added to his slate a weekly Sunday-morning political talk show, Al punto ("To the Point"). The following year Ramos became a U.S. citizen. In 2013 he began hosting an English-language nightly news program-which was later changed to a weekly format-on the cable channel Fusion.

Ramos's honours included a 2012 lifetime achievement Emmy Award, shared with Salinas, and several regional Emmys. He was also the author of a syndicated newspaper column and a number of books, including The Other Face of America: Chronicles of the Immigrants Shaping Our Future (2002) and A Country for All: An Immigrant Manifesto (2010).

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Jorge Ramos | Mexican-American journalist and author

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Jorge Ramos, Mexican American journalist who was perhaps the most prominent Hispanic newsperson in the United States, known as the "Walter Cronkite of Latino America." He notably was an anchor of Noticiero univision (1986- ). Ramos graduated (1981) with a communications degree from Ibero-American

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Presidents, former presidents and other politicians with even the slightest semblance of authority don't like to be questioned. These people have let power go to their heads; they can't even imagine that they might be wrong or that they should be held accountable.

The story behind Evo Morales' resignation as Bolivia's president is a complicated one. Sure, there was a popular uprising following a foolishly rigged election on Oct. 20. But it's also true that Morales was forced to resign in part because the military expressly wanted him to.

There is a rage brewing in Latin America.
Aware that they don't live in real democracies, the people of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia are taking to the streets. In Chile, Ecuador and Haiti, citizens are angry about social inequality and the lack of economic opportunity.

Mexicans are tired of the killing. The massacres earlier this year in Uruapan (where 19 people were killed) and Minatitlán (where 14 died) were a mere fraction of the many deadly tragedies that have shattered the nation.

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News - Interviews - Immigration - Politics - Journalist and writer Jorge Ramos

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Presidents, former presidents and other politicians with even the slightest semblance of authority don't like to be questioned. These people have let power go to their heads; they can't even imagine that they might be wrong or that they should be held accountable. The story behind Evo Morales' resignation as Bolivia's president is a complicated one.

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Jorge Ramos, a leading newscaster for media giant Univision, is known for tough interviews that have helped push issues of concern to Latino Americans to the top of the U.S. political agenda.

Often referred to as the "Walter Cronkite of Latino America," Ramos has interviewed world leaders and covered major international events for nearly three decades, bringing them to millions of Hispanic viewers in the United States and 13 Latin American countries.

A native of Mexico who came to the United States as a young journalist, Ramos has been an anchor of Univision's award-winning evening newscast, "Noticiero Univision," since 1986. He became a U.S. citizen in 2008. Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In an article last January, The New York Times called him "the voice of Latino voters."

In addition to his nightly newscasts for Univision and its English-language offshoot, Fusion, Ramos anchors a Sunday news analysis show, "Al Punto" (To the Point). He also writes a weekly column that is distributed by The New York Times Syndicate to more than 40 newspapers in the United States and Latin America.

He is the author of 11 books and provides commentary for three daily radio shows for the Univision Radio network. He has been instrumental in promoting literacy among Latinos. In 2002, he created "Despierta Leyendo" (Wake Up Reading), the first book club in the history of Hispanic television.

Ramos holds a master's degree in international studies from the University of Miami and a bachelor's degree in communication from Ibero-American University in Mexico City. He also completed a post-graduate course in broadcast journalism at the University of California at Los Angeles. In 2007, the University of Richmond awarded him an honorary doctor of letters degree.

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Jorge Ramos, a leading newscaster for media giant Univision, is known for tough interviews that have helped push issues of concern to Latino Americans to the top of the U.S.

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(born 1958). The most prominent Hispanic journalist in the United States in the late 20th and early 21st centuries was perhaps Mexican American newsman Jorge Ramos. He became the anchor of the nightly news program Noticiero univision, on the Spanish-language cable television network Univision, in 1986. Ramos's willingness to pose tough questions to world leaders earned him the trust of many Latinos.

Jorge Gilberto Ramos Ávalos was born on March 16, 1958, in Mexico City, Mexico. In 1981 he graduated with a communications degree from Ibero-American University in Mexico City. Ramos became a newswriter and, later, an on-air reporter for Televisa, the biggest media company in Mexico. Ramos objected to Televisa's close ties to the Mexican government, however. In 1983 he moved to the United States.

Ramos worked as a reporter for KMEX, a Spanish-language television station in Los Angeles, California. KMEX was owned by a company that later became Univision. Ramos soon transferred to the company's corporate headquarters in Miami, Florida, to host a national morning show. In 1986, at the age of 28, he was promoted to the national news anchor position for Univision. He began cohosting (with journalist María Elena Salinas) the channel's signature daily news program, Noticiero univision. In 1996 Ramos was granted a master's degree in international studies from the University of Miami.

Ramos became known for pressing powerful figures-notably Fidel Castro of Cuba, Ernesto Samper Pizano of Colombia, and Barack Obama of the United States-for answers to questions about difficult issues. His questions were often of a slightly leftist bent. In 2015 Ramos was briefly removed from a press conference for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump after repeatedly attempting to ask about Trump's controversial stance on undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Polls routinely named Ramos as one of the most influential and trusted Hispanics in the United States. Moreover, his nightly news program was the highest-rated newscast among Hispanics in the United States. In 2007 Ramos added to his slate a weekly Sunday-morning political talk show, Al punto ("To the Point"). The following year he became a U.S. citizen. In 2013 Ramos began hosting an English-language nightly news program-which was later changed to a weekly format-on the cable television channel Fusion.

Among Ramos's honors were a 2012 lifetime achievement Emmy Award, shared with Salinas, and several regional Emmys. He was also the author of a syndicated newspaper column and a number of books. His books include The Other Face of America: Chronicles of the Immigrants Shaping Our Future (2002) and A Country for All: An Immigrant Manifesto (2010).

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(born 1958). The most prominent Hispanic journalist in the United States in the late 20th and early 21st centuries was perhaps Mexican American newsman Jorge Ramos. He became the anchor of the nightly news program Noticiero univision, on the Spanish-language cable television network Univision, in 1986.

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Chef Jose Andres Discusses His Spanish Roots and American Connection Through Food

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Book on Sorra App (access through teach hub)

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Book on Sorra App (access through teach hub)

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Book on Sorra App (access through teach hub)

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Book on Sorra App (access through teach hub)

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Chef José Andrés on Providing Food During Crisis, World Central Kitchen & Who Invented Pizza

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José Andrés on 60 Minutes in 2017: Feeding Puerto Rico

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Born in Spain, where he learned the craft of cooking first from his parents and then in the kitchen of Ferran Adrià's groundbreaking avant-garde restaurant elBulli - José Andrés immigrated to the United States in 1991, first to New York City and later to Washington, D.C., where he and his partners established a group of restaurants that has earned countless fans and won numerous awards over the years.

José holds close both his identity as a Spanish immigrant and an American citizen, placing upon himself the responsibility of both culinary ambassador and immigrant representing the two nations. He is a visionary and a humanitarian, establishing World Central Kitchen in 2010 as a means for feeding the many - using culinary training programs to empower communities and strengthen economies as well as food disaster relief in the wake of emergencies around the globe.

He has been widely recognized for both his culinary and his humanitarian work, including by the James Beard Foundation - which named him Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic in 2003, as well as Humanitarian of the Year in 2018; TIME Magazine, which included him on the list of 100 Most Influential People in 2012 and 2018; and President Obama, who awarded José the National Humanities Medal in 2015. José holds two Michelin stars for his avant-garde tasting counter minibar by José Andrés in Washington, D.C., as well as four Bib Gourmands.

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Meet José Andrés Born in Spain, where he learned the craft of cooking first from his parents and then in the kitchen of Ferran Adrià's groundbreaking avant-garde restaurant elBulli - José Andrés immigrated to the United States in 1991, first to New York City and later to Washington, D.C., where he and his partners established a group [...]

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Biography of Jose Andres | Explore Recipes, Shows & More | PBS Food

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Chef Jose Andres is the host of Made in Spain on PBS as well as the owner of several popular Washington, D.C. restaurants.

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Jose Andres | Chef, Restaurateur, World Central Kitchen, & Global Humanitarian | Britannica

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Jose Andres is a Spanish chef who popularized tapas as a dining style and who gained acclaim for humanitarian efforts around the globe to bring food to people in crisis through his charity, World Central Kitchen.

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Sylvia Mendez (born June 7, 1936, Santa Ana, California, U.S.) is an American civil rights activist and nurse who was at the centre of the court case , in which a federal court ruled in the mid-1940s that the school segregation of Hispanic children was unconstitutional.

Mendez's father, Gonzalo, was from Mexico, and her mother, Felicitas, was from Puerto Rico. When Sylvia was a child, her family moved to Westminster in Orange county, California. In 1944, when she was eight, her family tried to register Sylvia and her brothers at a nearby Westminster elementary school. However, the public school did not admit Hispanic students, and the family was told to enroll the Mendez children at Hoover Elementary School, which was specifically for Mexican Americans. After appeals to Westminster's principal and the county school board were unsuccessful, Gonzalo Mendez decided to take legal action.

In 1945 he hired civil rights attorney David Marcus, who filed a federal lawsuit against Westminster and three other school districts in Orange county. Joining the suit were four other Mexican American families whose children had been forced to attend segregated schools. Marcus argued that segregating children based on ethnicity was a violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. He also stated that segregating the children was detrimental because it interfered with their ability to learn English and made them feel inferior. The defense countered that the segregation was based on the fact that Hispanic students were deficient in the English language and thus needed special instruction.

In early 1946 the judge ruled in favour of Mendez and ordered the four school boards to stop segregating Hispanic children. The next year an appeals court upheld the decision, and a couple of months later the state of California outlawed all segregation in its public schools. Mendez v. Westminster paved the way for the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education. Thurgood Marshall, who represented the plaintiffs, used Marcus's equal protection argument to successfully argue that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.

After the Mendez court case, Sylvia attended the desegregated Westminster elementary school. Later she graduated with an associate's degree in nursing from Orange Coast Community College. She then earned a bachelor's degree in nursing and a public health certificate from California State University at Los Angeles. She subsequently worked at the Los Angeles County University of Southern California Medical Center for more than 30 years.

After retiring from nursing, Mendez was active in teaching others about her legal case. In 2011 U.S. Pres. Barack Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her work in civil rights.

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Sylvia Mendez | Biography, School, Medal of Freedom, Lawsuit, & Facts

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Sylvia Mendez, American civil rights activist and nurse who was at the center of the court case Mendez v. Westminster, in which a federal court ruled in the mid-1940s that the school segregation of Hispanic children was unconstitutional. It laid the foundation for Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

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Book on Sorra App (Access through teach hub)

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Book on Sorra App (Access through teach hub)

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Book on Sorra App (access through teach hub) Spanish

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Book on Sorra App (access through teach hub) Spanish

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Book on Sorra App (access through teach hub)

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Book on Sorra App (access through teach hub)

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In 2018, the Berkeley Unified School District voted unanimously to accept the recommendation of the Naming Advisory Committee and change the name of our school from LeConte Elementary to Sylvia Mendez Elementary School. However, many do not know the story of Sylvia Mendez, her family, and all of those who fought to end segregation in education in California.

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Sylvia Mendez and Her Parents Fought School Segregation Years Before ‘Brown v. Board’

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The 8-year-old dreamed of going to the “beautiful school” white children attended and not the Mexican school, which consisted of two wooden shacks filled with second-hand books and faulty desks.

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Educational Videos for Students (Cartoons on Bullying, Leadership & More)

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Uprising! Charting the Latino Civil Rights Movement | Sylvia Mendez

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“Separate is not equal” was not first said in the Brown v. Board of Education ruling

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Justin Sutcliffe-AP/Shutterstock.com

(1951-2002). American civil rights activist Sylvia Rivera advocated for gay rights during the late 1960s and early 1970s. A transgender woman, she fought for the inclusion of transgender and other gender-nonconforming people in the mainstream lesbian and gay communities.

Rivera was born on July 2, 1951, in the Bronx, New York. Her father was Puerto Rican and her mother was Venezuelan. Her father left when she was a baby, and her mother committed suicide when Rivera was three years old. Rivera was then raised by her grandmother. Rivera had been designated male at birth. While growing up Rivera was beaten for wearing women's clothes and using makeup. She ran away from home when she was 11 years old. While living on the streets of New York, New York, she met Marsha P. Johnson, a transgender rights activist. At the time the term transgender was not widely in use, and Johnson and Rivera identified as drag queens. (A drag queen is a man who dresses as a woman to entertain others.) The two bonded over the challenges they faced as transgender individuals.

In 1969 Rivera participated in the Stonewall riots. The riots were a series of confrontations between gay rights activists and the police outside the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City. The riots evolved into an international movement for gay and lesbian rights. Rivera joined some of the early gay rights groups that formed, including the Gay Liberation Front. However, the gay rights movement originally discriminated against drag queens, many of whom were people of color. Rivera and other transgender and gender-fluid individuals were often discouraged from participating in parades and other actions advocating gay rights. Often misunderstood, they had to fight for acceptance in the gay community. (Transgender people can have any sexual orientation, including gay or straight.)

In 1970 Rivera and Johnson founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) to focus on issues involving transgender individuals. The two had identified a large population of homeless transgender teenagers who were not accepted by their families. STAR provided the teens with lodging, food, and clothing. Rivera and Johnson acted as house mothers, providing guidance and protection for the young people. Although STAR House closed in 1971 and the organization floundered, Rivera continued her activism. In 1973, fed up with the transgender community being ignored in the gay rights movement, she gave a fiery speech at a rally in New York City's Washington Square Park. The crowd booed her, and, once again feeling betrayed, Rivera stopped appearing at gay rights events. She suffered from periods of homelessness and drug addiction and may have left the city for a time.

In the early-1990s Rivera returned to her activist roots. She once again became involved in the fight for inclusion of gender-nonconforming individuals in the gay rights movement. Through her efforts and that of others, the gay and lesbian community eventually expanded to fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) rights. In 1994 Rivera was honored at the 25th-anniversary celebration of the Stonewall Inn riots. She later opened another house for gay and gender-nonconforming homeless youth.

Rivera died on February 19, 2002, in New York City. That same year the Sylvia Rivera Law Project was founded and named in her honor. It provides legal services to gay, transgender, and gender-fluid individuals.

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(1951-2002). American civil rights activist Sylvia Rivera advocated for gay rights during the late 1960s and early 1970s. A transgender woman, she fought for the inclusion of...

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A veteran of the 1969 Stonewall Inn uprising, Sylvia Rivera was a tireless advocate for those silenced and disregarded by larger movements. Throughout her life, she fought against the exclusion of transgender people, especially transgender people of color, from the larger movement for gay rights.

Rivera was born in New York City in 1951 to a father from Puerto Rico and a mother from Venezuela. She was assigned male at birth. Rivera had an incredibly difficult childhood. Her father was absent and her mother died by suicide when Rivera was 3 years old. Raised by her grandmother, Rivera began experimenting with clothing and makeup at a young age. She was beaten for doing so and, after being attacked on a school playground in sixth grade by another student, suspended from school for a week. Rivera ran away from home at age 11 and became a victim of sexual exploitation around 42nd Street.

In 1963, Rivera met Marsha P. Johnson and it changed her life. Johnson, an African American self-identified drag queen and activist, was also battling exclusion in a movement for gay rights that did not embrace her gender expression. Rivera said of Johnson that "she was like a mother to me." The two were actively involved in the Stonewall Inn uprising on June 28, 1969 when patrons of the Stonewall Inn-a gay bar in Greenwich Village in lower Manhattan-rebuffed a police raid and set a new tone for the gay rights movement. Rivera said in an interview in 2001 that while she did not throw the first Molotov cocktail at the police (a long-enduring myth), she did throw the second. For six nights, the 17-year-old Rivera refused to go home or to sleep, saying "I'm not missing a minute of this-it's the revolution!"

Rivera resisted arrest and subsequently led a series of protests against the raid. Yet this was not the first time Rivera was directly involved in activism. She said in a 1989 interview that, "Before gay rights, before the Stonewall, I was involved in the Black Liberation movement, the peace movement...I felt I had the time and I knew that I had to do something. My revolutionary blood was going back then. I was involved with that."

The Stonewall Inn uprising was also a turning point in the visibility of the gay rights movement. The first pride parades started in 1970, but Rivera and other transgender people were discriminated against and discouraged from participating. In 1973, Rivera participated in the Gay Pride Parade but was not allowed to speak, despite the amount of work and advocacy she had done. She grabbed the microphone anyway, telling the spectators and other marchers, "If it wasn't for the drag queen, there would be no gay liberation movement. We're the front-liners." She was booed off the stage.

Throughout the 1970s, she frequently tangled with gay rights leaders who were hesitant to include transgender people in their advocacy work. The Gay Activist Alliance (GAA), which formed in response to Stonewall, frequently rejected the role transgender people-the majority of whom were people of color-had played in the uprising. Rivera also fought against the exclusion of transgender people from the Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act in New York. The final bill passed in 2002 and prevents discrimination "on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, credit, and the exercise of civil rights."

Along with Marsha P. Johnson, Rivera started the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) around 1971. The group became a space to organize and discuss issues facing the transgender community in New York City and they also had a building, STAR House, that provided lodgings for those who needed it. Rivera explained in 1998 that she and Johnson "decided it was time to help each other and help our other kids. We fed people and clothed people. We kept the building going. We went out and hustled the streets. We paid the rent." Although only 19, Rivera became a mother to many of the residents of STAR House. While short-lived, STAR House was an important space for those who needed it.

The troubles she experienced as a child followed her into adulthood. Rivera frequently experienced homelessness and had problems with substance abuse. At one point, Rivera attempted suicide. Her friend Johnson brought her to the hospital and helped her get healthy again. After this experience, Rivera left New York City and activism behind for a bit. She returned to the city in 1992 after the death of Johnson.

Once back in the city, Rivera got involved again with the fight for the inclusion and recognition of transgender individuals. She started Transy House, modeled off STAR House, in 1997 in Park Slope, Brooklyn. She also reconciled with the gay rights movement that was now expanding to embrace the LGBTQ+ community. She was given a place of honor in the 25th Anniversary Stonewall Inn march in 1994. Rivera said in a 1995 interview with The New York Times of participating in this parade, "the movement had put me on the shelf, but they took me down and dusted me off...Still, it was beautiful. I walked down 58th Street and the young ones were calling from the sidewalk, 'Sylvia, Sylvia, thank you, we know what you did.'" In 2001, she was marching in New York City Pride Parades and living in Transy House.

Silvia Rivera died of liver cancer in St. Vincent's Manhattan Hospital in 2002 at the age of 50. Her partner, Julia Murray, was with her at the time of her death.

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project continues her legacy, working to guarantee "all people are free to self-determine their gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination, or violence." The intersection of Christopher and Hudson streets in Greenwich Village, two blocks from The Stonewall Inn, was renamed "Sylvia Rivera Way." In 2015, a portrait of Rivera was added to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., making her the first transgender activist to be included in the gallery. In 2021, New York City will unveil a monument to Rivera and Johnson. It will be the city's-and according to New York City, the world's-first monument dedicated to transgender individuals.

Published March 2021.

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A veteran of the 1969 Stonewall Inn uprising, Sylvia Rivera was a tireless advocate for those silenced and disregarded by larger movements.

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Sylvia Rivera: Pushing Boundaries | Taína Caragol

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Book on Sorra App (access through teach hub)

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Book on Sorra App (access through teach hub)

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Book on Sorra App (access through teach hub)

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Book on Sorra App (access through teach hub)

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Board Member | Tech Executive | Entrepreneur | Speaker | Author

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(born 1957?). American engineer and businesswoman Sylvia Acevedo held leadership positions at a number of technology companies, including Apple, Dell, and IBM. She also...

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Sylvia Acevedo is a rocket scientist, entrepreneur, CEO, and author of Path to the Stars: My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist.

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Sylvia Acevedo is a U.S. engineer, advocate for girls’ STEM education, and a lifelong Girl Scout. She worked in leadership positions at a number of technology companies (such…